• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

RealClimate

Climate science from climate scientists...

  • Start here
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics
  • Surface temperature graphics
You are here: Home / Extras / Glossary / Medieval Warm Period (“MWP”)

Medieval Warm Period (“MWP”)

28 Nov 2004 by group

Period of relative warmth in some regions of the Northern Hemisphere in comparison with the subsequent several centuries. Also referred to as the Medieval Warm Epoch (MWE). As with the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA), no well-defined precise date range exists. The dates A.D. 900–1300 cover most ranges generally used in the literature. Origin is difficult to track down, but it is believed to have been first used in the 1960s (probably by Lamb in 1965). As with the LIA, the attribution of the term at regional scales is complicated by significant regional variations in temperature changes, and the utility of the term in describing regional climate changes in past centuries has been questioned in the literature. As with the LIA, numerous myths can still be found in the literature with regard to the details of this climate period. These include the citation of the cultivation of vines in Medieval England, and the settlement of Iceland and southwestern Greenland about 1000 years ago, as evidence of unusual warmth at this time. As noted by Jones and Mann (2004) [Jones, P.D., Mann, M.E., Climate Over Past Millennia, Reviews of Geophysics, 42, RG2002, doi: 10.1029/2003RG000143, 2004], arguments that such evidence supports anomalous global warmth during this time period is based on faulty logic and/or misinterpretations of the available evidence.

Filed Under: Glossary

Primary Sidebar

Search

Search for:

Email Notification

get new posts sent to you automatically (free)
Loading

Recent Posts

  • Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • The Puzzling Pleistocene
  • How robust is our accelerometer?
  • Unforced Variations: Mar 2026
  • EPA’s final* ruling on CO2
  • The Climate Science reference they don’t want Judges to read

Our Books

Book covers
This list of books since 2005 (in reverse chronological order) that we have been involved in, accompanied by the publisher’s official description, and some comments of independent reviewers of the work.
All Books >>

Recent Comments

  • Dean Rovang on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Ray Ladbury on Unforced Variations: Mar 2026
  • Annette on Unforced Variations: Mar 2026
  • zebra on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Pete Best on Unforced Variations: Mar 2026
  • Tomáš Kalisz on The Puzzling Pleistocene
  • Bill Henderson on Unforced Variations: Mar 2026
  • Ray Ladbury on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Ray Ladbury on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Keith Woollard on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Data on The Puzzling Pleistocene
  • John Pollack on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Data on Unforced Variations: Mar 2026
  • Piotr on The Puzzling Pleistocene
  • JCM on Unforced Variations: Mar 2026
  • Radge Havers on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Ken Towe on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • zebra on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Ray Ladbury on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • jgnfld on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Keith Woollard on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • John Pollack on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Paul Pukite (@whut) on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Tomáš Kalisz on The Puzzling Pleistocene
  • Ray Ladbury on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Ray Ladbury on EPA’s final* ruling on CO2
  • Ron R. on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II
  • Martin Smith on Spencer’s Shenanigans: Part II

Footer

ABOUT

  • About
  • Translations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Page
  • Login

DATA AND GRAPHICS

  • Data Sources
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Surface temperature graphics
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics

INDEX

  • Acronym index
  • Index
  • Archives
  • Contributors

Realclimate Stats

1,402 posts

15 pages

251,059 comments

Copyright © 2026 · RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists.